Tango dancers have brains that appear more than seven years younger than their actual age, with creativity linked to slower brain ageing across all art forms, new research has found.
Musicians and visual artists showed brains about five to six years younger, while gamers’ brains appeared around four years younger, according to research examining how creative activities affect brain health.
The more participants practised their art form, the stronger the anti-ageing effect.
“Creativity protects brain areas that are vulnerable to ageing and makes brain communication more efficient,” said Carlos Coronel, postdoctoral researcher at the Latin American Brain Health Institute.
He compared the effect to “building more, larger, and higher-quality roads to communicate between cities within a country.”
Researchers collected data from almost 1,400 people across 13 countries, including expert tango dancers, musicians, visual artists and gamers, and non-experts matched for age, education and gender.
The work, led by the Latin American Brain Health Institute at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez and Trinity College Dublin, used artificial intelligence “brain clocks” to estimate brain age.
Brain clocks are AI models that estimate how old a brain appears based on scans or patterns of neural activity.
When someone’s predicted brain age is lower than their chronological age, it suggests their brain is ageing more slowly and functioning more efficiently for their years.
The researchers recorded brain activity using magnetoencephalography and electroencephalography — techniques that measure electrical activity in real time.
They then trained computer models to create a brain clock for each participant.
Even short-term creative training produced benefits. Non-experts who trained for 30 hours in the strategy video game StarCraft II showed a reduction in brain age of between two and three years.
The team also used “digital brains” — biophysical computer simulations that replicate real brain activity using mathematical equations — to understand why creativity may protect against ageing.
These models showed that creative activities help key brain areas work better together, especially regions involved in focus and learning that typically age first.
Professor Agustín Ibáñez from Trinity College Dublin said the research “reframes creativity as a biological pathway to brain health and resilience, not only a cultural or psychological phenomenon.”
The findings suggest that creativity keeps connections between brain regions stronger and more flexible, particularly in areas that usually decline with age.
It did not matter which art form participants practised — dancing, painting, music or gaming all showed similar effects.
“By showing that artistic engagement can delay brain ageing, this research helps us reimagine the role of creativity in education, public health, and ageing societies,” the researchers said.
They described creativity as a “scalable, accessible and deeply human mechanism” to sustain cognitive and emotional wellbeing across diverse populations and lifespans.
Unlike many brain health interventions, creative activities also provide enjoyment alongside biological benefits.
“Your next dance step, brush stroke, or musical note might just help your brain stay a little younger,” the researchers concluded.